Tag: europe

Costly Amsterdam (and Berlin, Prague reports late)

Here I am in Amsterdam, an uncognizant (word?) poet.

The public library has a free 30 minute Internet access period so I’m typing away furiously here.

Amsterdam is expensive, expensive, expensive. If you want to go in anywhere, it’s at least 5€. Food is silly too. At least it’s relatively compact and walkable, so we wasted (in retrospect) even more money on our public transport passes. Oops.

The Resistance museum was pretty good but frightening as it didn’t (completely) dance around the complacency of much of the populace. The Anne Frank Huis was very well-done, with stairs in their back-breaking original setup.

It’s true: literally everyone in Amsterdam (for my sample, anyway) speaks perfectly good English.

Tonight the luggage lockers close at 23h but our train won’t leave until… 04h or so? So you might see me on the Internet later for pay. Yes, I am staying awake until then just to see Luxembourg: got a problem with that?

Most of the sights I’ve seen so far are about what you’d expect, so since time is limited I’ll confine my writing to surprises. The Van Gogh museum is, in my opinion, badly overpriced: 10€ for a collection not nearly that big. Prices at most places about about 0,50 or 1 over what the guidebooks thought at the beginning of the year. Our hostel, the Shelter Jordan, has cheap and good food in its café and provided a very nice, non-pushy interpretation of Christianity’s ideas on hospitality and fairness. It’s also extremely well-run for the low cost, and provided… be afraid, dear reader… full-strength orange juice! Sure, fresh from the box, but not unrecognizable like most hostel breakfast swill.

Muddled impressions from the last few cities… I liked Berlin. We ended up stumbling into a free game-watch at a cultural center which has been taken over by Brazil for the duration and watching the Brazilian victory. We also saw the Brandenburg gate, Checkpoint Charlie, and all the normal Berlin stuff. Hmm, what else… Jewish museum, monument to the murdered Jews of Europe, lots of World Cup excitement, tasty bratwurst, exciting ticket inspection raids on the U-bahn, the world’s new largest train station in Berlin Hbf, a unreasonably reasonably priced drugstore/mini-grocery in the same, the amazing free view from the Reichstag dome, a few rides on bus 100 including the Tiergarten and statue in middle, the (entrance to the) Zoo, the Olympic Stadium, the Alexanderplatz area and TV tower… OK, I had a good time, anyway.

In Prague we mostly tried to keep up with the German guided tour, which didn’t work too well–I understood the Latin in the churches better–but it was still interesting. We ate at some place which I will later shame in these pages for the shameless hidden 30 czk cover charge applied per person, and had earlier been cheated (even on the receipt) at a change-house. That is to say, Prague served as a wonderful reminder of the Euro’s usefulness.

My time is drawing to an end and I still have some stuff to look up, so that’s all for now.

prague, berlin, amsterdam

You’re going to have to wait for those, maybe forever… I’m tired and in a very bad mood from the trip here (Amsterdam) from Berlin.

Actually, you will have to wait for a lot, since the Internet doesn’t grow on trees here.

The server was down for a bit. It happens. It will probably happen even more often when I am not keeping an eye on it. Traveling is hard and getting where I need to be and seeing what’s around is my first priority. If I ever remember to buy a notebook, it might get updated later.

Briefly: Prague was pretty, badly overtouristed, and cheatful. Berlin was very nice, great Reichstag view and nice views from the ground too. Amsterdam… well, I just got here, and I’m not all tulips as you may be able to tell. We’ll see if I can do better–I’m planning to recharge with some art today if I can help it.

prague, or not, or maybe

An ongoing bit of drama has been the issue of our daytrip to Prague. Things keep working and then not working, and the same for their alternatives. The current plan is to wake up in time for a 6h15 departure on a 26€ all-in semi-guided-bus-tour tomorrow. We will see.

Pilnitz was nice but not a must-see. Woke up on the wrong side of the bed today, so that might have been a factor. Lunch was most excellent–Saurbraten, some very tender meat served with red cabbage and a sour sauce, with a Weissbier to wash it down… both extremely German I am told.

Before, stopped by the train station and reserved seats on an EC train around 10h Sunday to Berlin’s shiny new Hbh.

It should be interesting to be in Prague on game day but I think we will be out of town before the 18h kickoff v. Ghana. We should also be back in time to watch the US play (I hope they play) Italy at 21h.

The GEO grant check partially reimbursing me for the Hong Kong flight has thankfully landed in checking back home, so that will not hurt at all.

Better get a shower for the early wake up tomorrow.

dresden part 2

Yesterday was a day of fairly standard sightseeing… the Church of Our Lady, the cathedral, the Saxon jewelry vault and painting collections, and the various sights of the Altstadt. Also saw the hosts’ son’s school, in GDR concrete glory. The streetcar system is nice and fairly foolproof.

Last night, after stuffing ourselves at a late lunch with food from the Müller butcher shop/deli operation across the street, we went out with Maria and Stefan to the Neustadt (more dirty and free-spirited and fun) for… Mexican food. Well, not food, because I barely dented an appetizer plate of potato wedges. It is interesting and tasty to discover that the caipirinha has made it (with real cachaca, no less) big in Germany… the place we went to had a whole page of caipi drinks on the list.

After dinner, we walked back along the tram route (quite a long haul) thanks to Alana’s navigation skills developed the last time she was here. It was nice and breezy and offered the chance to sneak onto the grounds of some grand building and catch a nice view of the city… very pleasant walk, easily the trip’s highlight for me so far.

Today we are headed for Pilnitz castle and Meissen, I believe, before another heart attack off the grill in the evening.

Ecuador is playing a heck of a world cup if you haven’t been watching. ECU/GER should be a blast.

eastbound transatlantic

Clever fellow that I am, I didn’t find my notebook before I left, so I will need to pick up one of those some time. We had a stunningly uneventful trip, starting at the stunningly uneventful airport in Huntington (HTS) where the check-in agents run back to do security screening (one flight at a time) and gate agent duty. All flights were on time to slightly early, despite menacing-looking weather in Charlotte.

In Charlotte Alana spotted a Lufthansa plane with the nose painted as a soccer ball… cute. We heard that Brazil had gone up 1-0 in its game and from what I’ve heard that was the only action to be had in that match.

The flight to Frankfurt was long and sleepless as usual for me. An old couple behind us kept their reading lights on for the duration, providing relief from the stereotype of screaming kids keeping me up during the flight. I had an aggressive recliner in front of me, of course.

Frankfurt brought the dreaded bus treatment on arrival. It was a kneeling bus so when it got up after we boarded it was a bit of a dizzying shock for most people.

Passport control was perfunctory and Customs a walk-through (and a quick one without checked baggage for us). Happily, the immigration officer added to my stamp collection with a faint standard Schengen entry.

After a long but quickly moving line in the airport’s train station to validate our Eurail passes, we made it to the Frankfurt Hbh (central train station) pretty easily by S-bahn. We also reserved seats from Frankfurt to Dresden on the ICE (Intercity Express highspeed) at 1009, a few hours later, which would turn out to be a couple Euro well spent.

Frankfurt was in World Cup fever and I was in (very tired) heaven as we wandered through and around the Hbh. Lots of uniforms, flags, and decked out fans were on display. Indeed, when we finally got on the train, it was choked with fans headed to Leipzig for the Spain-Ukraine match at 1500 (Spain crushed Ukraine 4-nil–we saw some of it at the house here).

After four hours or so we made it to Dresden, within five minutes of the schedule or so. Maria, who had exchanged in Alana’s house, picked us up at Dresden Hbh and drove us to her parent’s house, which has been remodeled a bit and is very nice. We were very well stuffed with grilled meats and tomato salad last night before settling down to watch Germany play Poland in Dortmund. Unfortunately the trip was hitting me hard after dinner, and I went to sleep at half time. After a false start, waking up at 0030, I managed to sleep until just before 0730. Our hosts are off to school and work and I’m getting ready for a long-anticipated shower and switch to the correct time zone in my head (CEST is plus two hours, EDT is minus 4, so I’m lagged by six).

Weather is gorgeous and downright toasty–about 90 yesterday afternoon, very Spanish-feeling.

The free Internet will soon come to an end when we leave Dresden in a few days, so don’t expect posts of this length all time time. I will try, though, and after I get a notebook there will at least be a record to update when we return Stateside.

Dublin airport, points east, and points west

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Although the UK immigration authorities had grilled me twice (and laid down two separate “leave to enter for six months” stamps within a page of each other), Ireland’s tired soul looked at the previous stamp and mumbled a bit. On this exit from Customs in Ireland I was not as delirious as originally, but I also didn’t get any hospitality: as a matter of fact, I slept in the airport. Sure, I could have booked a hostel, but they aren’t cheap and I only had around eight hours between flights.

It wasn’t very fun. It could have been much, much, worse, and I’ll do it again, but…

LG 4982 DUB-MAN 5 Jan 0910-1000

Manchester was a friendly little place and brought an interesting twist into my travel plans. Going through transit to avoid a third grilling from the Home Office, Ryan and I were told that our seats would be assigned at the gate. This was interesting since we had reserved seats all the way.

On finally making it to the gate, I was given some seats… with us about 40 rows apart and with me in a middle seat. I objected a bit but I was tired, so I retreated, returning in a minute when I noticed the middle seat. That wasn’t going to fly, or I wasn’t. To US’s credit the gate agent was already working on it, and for a second time her thick Sharpie struck my boarding pass as she asked me to get my “lady friend’s” so she could change it too.

On my pass, she wrote “4C.”

I mumbled my thanks and shut up, boarding a few minutes later for the first non-Economy flight in my life.

We were in the center pair of seats in the 2-2-2 “BusinessElite” cabin in a halfway house between First and Business, where service was (to this coach-accustomed commoner) miraculous. Champagne was offered (and sadly declined, since I wasn’t of the appropriate vintage) every time I looked up, dinner started with smoked salmon and ended with a cheese plate, and most importantly I could not physically reach the seat in front of me.

I slept (with the complimentary eyeshade, nice blanket, and earplugs). That’s not something I normally do on trans-atlantic flights, but it was very nice. Although I have to say, thanks to the new planes on the route (Airbus 330) Economy was pleasant if not spacious: the personal screens and audio/video on demand provided plenty of options. A marked improvement over the old AA Boeing 767s I flew on the 2004 trip.

US 197 MAN-PHL 1100-1400
US 288 PHL-PIT 1600-1717

Arriving in Philadelphia semi-refreshed, we made it off the plane quickly and waited a couple days for our backs. We got through Customs and Immigration relatively quickly and were unceremoniously (and frustratingly) dumped landside where the Shoe Carnival at security took us another while. The rest is fairly blurry, except that US managed to lose my bag between PHL and PIT while keeping track of it from DUB to MAN to PHL.

London

Thanks to the automatic five trillion percent London markup, airfare from Paris to London proved to be no cheaper than taking a high speed train underwater. That almost makes sense coming from the domestic air market in the States, but looks odd in Europe. So I took the

eurostar 9025 Paris Nord–London Waterloo 3 Jan 1143-1325

The journey was a typical high-speed one, with immigration pre-clearance in Gare du Nord and with me conked out for all of the in-tunnel segment. Oops.

I stayed one night at the Astor Museum Inn–not for as long as I liked, but long enough for that place. I guess it wasn’t bad–fairly clean, right near the British Museum–but not having hot water is no fun.

In retrospect I should have dropped London entirely or booked tickets out of London for the return journey, but I figured this gave me at least as long as I spent in Paris in 2004.

As part of a process of gentle encouragement for Londoners to switch from their paper Tube tickets to the Oyster contactless smart card, a single paper return fare on the Tube cost more than a paper day-pass. I jumped on the false economy enthusiastically and made good use of two passes.

I started making use of my night-seeing technique, reserving extensive and free sight-seeing for the night when attractions were closed and attractions were lighted. In this way I saw all the stereotypical central London sights. During the daytime, I explored the excellent (and free) Tate Modern and the excellent, free, and ginourmous British Museum. That’s about all I’d time for then but since I didn’t get close to finishing one section of the British Museum I don’t feel I wasted much time.

Everything was ridiculously expensive. I don’t remember how many pounds I took out on arrival at Waterloo station, but I had only a couple coins left by the time I paid for my transport, night of hostel, and key deposit.

On my way out, in Victoria Station, I was pleased to find the first automatic ticketing machine in Europe to take a chipless credit card from me. Shunning the “Gatwick Express” I caught a Southern train for a slightly lower price and fiddled around.

An interesting thing about Gatwick is that the passenger waiting area on airside is consolidated: that is, everyone waits in a massive central mall area and the gate is announced 10 or 20 minutes prior to boarding. The departure lounges at the gates, as a result, are much smaller affairs and all the shopping and services are in the central chaos. I’m not sure if I like the idea or not, but it looks efficient.

Paris

FR 22 DUB-BVA 30 Dec 0700-0925

I was greeted in the cornfields of Beauvais with the beginnings of a French blizzard–an unusual event which made the long line for coach tickets feel just a bit less friendly. I’m glad I brought gloves, coat, and ear protection. When I got to the stop in Paris the snow was whipping around for real, and it lent a different sort of glow than one would expect from Paris. Until it melted into a miserable gray-black sludgy muck in a couple hours and everything was back to normal.

In Paris, I stayed with Alison from Baton Rouge, whom I hadn’t quite met… but we fixed that. I met her visiting brother Matt, roommate Elaine, and also a few (mostly temporary) locals at a rocking New Year’s house party, to be mentioned soon.

Alison’s apartment was fabulously located, maybe 30 steps or so from a Métro stop (Rambuteau), practically on top of the Centre Pompidou, and a very short walk from the Hôtel de Ville (city hall, where a pretty sweet-looking temporary skating rink tempted daily) and Nôtre Dame. It also had the requisite character for the location–the gigantic porthole in the shower, the peeling ceiling, and a wonderful clothes-drying radiator that made sleeping in the hallway even warmer than a walk in the park.

Said New Year’s party took us from good cajun seasoning, King Cake, and a fabulously-stocked selection of champagne and other things classily arranged in the window gutter to the infinite subterranean labyrinths of Châtelet-Les Halles to the Champs-Elysées where Frenchmen indulged a freelance fireworks fetish and the rest of us ducked.

Ran into a mini-riot with bottle-throwing and riot police which got me a little hopped up on adrenaline and moody for the rest of the evening, but that’s part of the experience, isn’t it?

Of course the New Year wasn’t all: I got to see Paris more properly than the last time I was there (a couple days or so at the end of my Spain jaunt in 2004). My French has improved dramatically since then (which is to say that I can tell people I can’t speak French quite snappily) and I got pretty good at navigating the RATP. Matt and I visited Alison and her English students at one of the Louvre‘s free youth Fridays, and I got good mileage out of my traditional avenue-walking. Notable sights seen include the Jardins of Tuileries and Luxembourg, the Sorbonne, the Musée nationale du Moyen Age, night walking along the Seine and a couple of its bridges, and of course all of the lovely arches and pointy things on the Champs.

The four of us living in the apartment for the week also went up to Sacré-CÅ“ur on Montmartre and stumbled into a Mass. Thanks to hearing in tongues years of indoctrination, I understood the priest perfectly although I’m not an expert in French ecclesiastical terminology. There were lots of fun markets (and many more fun stairs) on the hill. We later made the pilgrimage to Jim Morrison’s tomb (and looked for our last names—I wasn’t too lucky) at the Cimetière du Père Lachaise.

That’s all out of order but it captures most of the important parts of my stay.

Learning about lemon and sugar crèpes was an important part too.